Two arrested for killing peacocks

Ghaziabad, Feb 11 (IANS) Two poachers, who had killed two peacocks in Ghaziabad, were caught by alert farmers Friday and handed over to police, officials said. Two men, carrying a sack, were passing along a field on the Kuchesar Road near Chaupala in Hapur area when they were stopped by farmers, who suspected the two had stolen potatoes, and searched them.

When the farmers asked the duo to open the sack, carcasses of a male and female peacock were discovered.

On seeing this, hundreds of farmers working in the field rushed to the spot and thrashed the duo before calling police.

The two poachers, identified as Som Pal, 48 and Param Veer, 42, told police that they had killed the peacocks in an orchard.

District Forest Officer Yashpal Singh Malik said: “We have booked them under the Wildlife Protection Act and sent them to jail. Peacock is a national bird and a protected animal. Killing it carries a jail term of seven years.”